Contents

Back up your computer

It is always important to make sure you have regular and recent backups
of your computer. This is just good advice for life, and is not limited
to times when you are engaged in programming.

Install Python v.2

Go to the Python website, download the latest stable release of the
Python programming language (Version 2.7.12 as of August 2016) and install
it by following the instructions on the Python website.

Create a Directory

To stay organized, it’s best to have a dedicated directory (folder) on
your computer where you will keep your Python programs (e.g.,
programming-historian) and save it anywhere you like on your hard
drive.

Install Komodo Edit

Start Komodo Edit

It should look something like this:

Komodo Edit on Windows

If you don’t see the Toolbox pane on the right hand side, choose
View -> Tabs -> Toolbox. It doesn’t matter if the Project pane is open
or not. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the layout of the
Komodo editor. The Help file is quite good.

Configure Komodo Edit

Now you need to set up the editor so that you can run Python programs.

Choose Edit -> Preferences. This will open a new dialog window.
Select the Python category and set the
“Default Python Interpreter” (it should be
C:\Python27\Python.exe)
If it looks like this, click OK:

Set the Default Python Interpreter

Next, in the Preferences section select Internationalization.
Select Python from the drop-down menu titled Language-specific
Default Encoding and make sure that UTF-8 is selected as the
default encoding method.

Set the Language to UTF-8

Next choose Toolbox->Add->New Command. This will open a new dialog
window. Rename your command to ‘Run Python’. Under ‘Command’, type:

%(python)%f

If you forget this command, Python will hang mysteriously because it
isn’t receiving a program as input.

Under ‘Start in’, enter:

%D

If it looks like this, click OK:

‘Run Python’ Command

Your new command should appear in the Toolbox pane. You may need to
restart your machine after completing this step before Python will work
with Komodo Edit.

Step 2 – ‘Hello World’ in Python

It is traditional to begin programming in a new language by trying to
create a program that says ‘hello world’ and terminates. We will show
you how to do this in Python and HTML.

Python is a good programming language for beginners because it is very
high-level. It is possible, in other words, to write short programs that
accomplish a lot. The shorter the program, the more likely it is for the
whole thing to fit on one screen, and the easier it is to keep track of
all of it in your mind.

Python is an ‘interpreted’ programming language. This means that
there is a special computer program (known as an interpreter) that knows
how to follow instructions written in that language. One way to use the
interpreter is to store all of your instructions in a file, and then run
the interpreter on the file. A file that contains programming language
instructions is known as a program. The interpreter will execute each of
the instructions that you gave it in your program and then stop. Let’s
try this.

In your text editor, create a new file, enter the following two-line
program and save it to your programming-historian directory as
hello-world.py

# hello-world.pyprint('hello world')

Your chosen text editor should have a “Run” button that will allow you
to execute your program. If all went well, it should look something like
this (Example as seen in Komodo Edit. Click on the image to see a
full-size copy):

‘Hello World’

Interacting with a Python shell

Another way to interact with an interpreter is to use what is known as a
shell. You can type in a statement and press the Enter key, and the
shell will respond to your command. Using a shell is a great way to test
statements to make sure that they do what you think they should.

You can run a Python Shell by double-clicking on the python.exe file. If
you installed version 2.7 (the most recent as of August 2016), then this
file is probably located in the C:\Python27\python.exe directory. In
the shell window that opens on your screen type:

print('hello world')

and press Enter. The computer will respond with

helloworld

When we want to represent an interaction with the shell, we will use ->
to indicate the shell’s response to your command, as shown below:

print('hello world')->helloworld

On your screen, it will look more like this:

Python Shell in Windows

Now that you and your computer are up and running, we can move onto some
more interesting tasks. If you are working through the Python lessons in
order, we suggest you next try ‘Understanding Web Pages and HTML‘

About the authors

William J. Turkel is Professor of History at the
University of Western Ontario.

Adam Crymble is a senior lecturer of digital history at the University of
Hertfordshire.

Suggested Citation

William J. Turkel and Adam Crymble, "Setting Up an Integrated Development Environment for Python (Windows)," The Programming Historian 1 (2012), https://programminghistorian.org/en/lessons/windows-installation.

The Programming Historian (ISSN: 2397-2068) is released under a CC-BY license.